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Wednesday, January 24, 2018

WHY BELGIUM TO HONOR PATRICE LUMUMBA

Captured Patrice Lumumba, shortly after Belgium lost Congo in 1960. His body later exhumed and dissolved in sulphuric acid

Brussels: commemorative plaque in honor of Patrice Lumumba

There will soon be a commemorative plaque in honor of Patrice Lumumba. He symbolizes independence in the Congo, nowadays known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

It will be affixed in a few weeks in the Square du Bastion, located on the boundary between the center of Brussels for which Brussels City Council are responsible, and the commune of Ixelles. This was indicated on Monday evening by Philippe Close (PS), Mayor of Brussels City Council and indeed the City of Brussels.

Aside from recent cultural initiatives, the city council has moreover scheduled as part of the last fortnight of international solidarity, the theatre production “Colonialoscopie” which deals with Belgium’s relationship with its colonial past.

Philippe Close explained, “The assassination of Mr. Lumumba involves Belgium taking moral responsibility, in line with the conclusions of the parliamentary investigative committee, instituted for this purpose in 2002.”

He was questioned by Zoubida Jellab (Ecolo) upon the Belgian colonial era and incidents around connected monuments, indeed erected, in the memory of King Léopold II. The Mayor said, "We can neither repair the damage of the past or remedy it. What we can do, however, is build a common future, around shared values.”

This evoked the denunciation by several perpetrators of abuses committed up to 1908 which were the personal responsibility of Léopold II before he ceded the Congo to the Belgian state. Mr. Close also cited the light shed, in 1998, by the American journalist Adam Hochschild, of the “horrors suffered by Congolese populations which endured forced labor in the independent state of the Congo.”

Philippe Close is clear that a cosmopolitan city with some 184 nationalities is the source of cultural wealth, "that we altogether wish to derive benefit from.” He further said, “That naturally assumes that there are memories which are sometimes contradictory within our shared narrative.”

Citizen movements have been demanding that a square located behind the Saint-Boniface church should bear the name of Patrice Lumumba for a long time now. The square is in the district known as “Matonge”, in Ixelles. The citizens now have the sense that they have been partially listened to.

The Brussels Times- By

Lars Andersen

Editorial:

Why did the Belgium government decide to give Lumumba recognition now?

The political story of Africa under colonial masters reveal horror, and crime but what took place in Congo, then known as Belgian-Congo, under the rule of the greedy lunatic Leopold II, is a shocking story that can't be erased from the political history of Africa and will always haunt Belgium as well.

Like Ghana's Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, who realized earlier the destruction of Africa through colonial leaders and successive American leaders, Patrice Lumumba fought for independence for his country and in 1960, Belgium lost Congo.

Till now Belgium hasn't recovered from losing the Congo, which was the source of all its riches. To punish Lumumba for gaining Congo's independence, the Belgian government conspired with the CIA in America and Lumumba was removed from power and brutally killed.

The shocking part of the story is that after he was laid to rest, in the middle of the night, his body was exhumed and dissolved in sulphuric acid and parts of his body kept as a souvenir. Many believe this horrible crime Belgium committed is haunting the government.

Let's break it down to narrate this story very well. How could Belgium build a statue for the one responsible of this genocide in Congo, Leopold II, when there is no statue of Adolf Hitler for committing a similar crime against the Jews, during the Second World War?

In every man's chest, whether black or white, there is a heart. We all feel pain when we are hurt. Some pains are accidentally caused, while others are deliberately caused but Belgium went too far to commit such heinous crimes in Africa, including Rwanda.

Whether they honor Lumumba or break down the lunatic Leopold's statue, the government will always be haunted because they have indelible blood stains in their palms.